Opening Ceremony gets 2017 AIBA World Championships underway after Official Draw reveals line-ups for the 243 boxers going for glory in Hamburg

AIBA

1 year ago

The Opening Ceremony at Hamburg’s Town Hall officially began the 2017 AIBA World Boxing Championships on Thursday evening, after the Official Draw had earlier revealed the potential medal routes of the 243 confirmed boxers competing from 75 countries. The line-ups across the ten weight categories include a host of reigning World and Olympic Champions and medallists competing alongside talented newcomers, promising a wealth of high-class bouts across the nine days of action.

“We are delighted to be here in Hamburg for what will be an unforgettable edition of the AIBA World Championships. With the completion of today’s Draw, the 75 teams and their boxers can now begin their final preparations for the start of competition. This is the moment that we have all been building towards for many months and I am proud that we have put in place a tournament that will shine the light on these boxers more brightly than ever before, helping to establish new heroes in our sport,” said AIBA President Dr Ching-Kuo Wu.

Dr Wu officially opened the tournament during the evening ceremony that included a message of good luck from the IOC President Mr Thomas Bach and the formal presentation of flags of the 75 competing National federations. An official welcome dinner for the delegations followed at the city’s famous Elbphilharmonie concert hall.

Friday’s opening session of boxing begins at 2pm local time and will see the first bouts of the Light Flyweight (49kg) competition, in which the top seeds include Uzbekistan’s reigning Olympic Champion Hasanboy Dusmatov and his fellow Rio 2016 medallists Yuberjen Martinez of Colombia and Cuba’s Johnays Argilagos.

Englishman Galal Yafai will go up against Scotland’s Aqeel Ahmed in the pick of the early Light Flyweight action, while the preliminary rounds of the Bantamweight (56kg), Light Welterweight (64kg), Middleweight (75kg) and Heavyweight (91kg) competitions will also take place over Friday’s two sessions. The Bantamweight battles between USA’s Duke Ragan and Cuba’s Javier Ibanez and the Dominican Republic’s Leonel dos Santos against Ireland’s Kurt Walker being among the most eye-catching of the day’s total of 41 exciting bouts.

For the full results of the 2017 AIBA World Championships Draw, click HERE.

The 2017 AIBA World Championships will be streamed live on the AIBA FACEBOOK PAGE except in those region’s geo-blocked due to rights restrictions by local broadcasters.